Would you have a serious relationship with someone with 200k in student loan debt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$220,000 of student loan debt for an undergraduate degree in education is astonishing. How did this happen ?

Undergraduate student loans should never be in excess of one's expected first year salary. $220,000 of student loan debt for a $50,000 a year position just won't work.

Maybe she thought teachers made more in big cities? You hear about DCPS teachers making nearly $100k. Maybe she had a different major and couldn’t hack it. I certainly had no idea about any salaries in my major other than those newspaper articles (where chemical engineers make $70k and marketing major make $60k and it all seems like a wash).

You look at these incredibly hard majors and suddenly a $50k education job, with summers off and pension doesn’t look so shabby.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/10-college-majors-with-the-highest-starting-salaries?slide=13

It’s only by knowing actual professionals, especially professional school graduates, that you understand how salaries actually spread
.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:From med school or a top ten law school or business school, yes, assuming we were about thirty or younger.

Otherwise, no. What was she thinking????

It KILLS me when kids do this.

Well yeah why are KIDS being approved for this much debt to begin with? They aren’t allowed to drink, rent a car, etc. but as a society we have somehow decided they are mature enough to understand the consequences of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans? Most haven’t even had a financial literacy course.

They aren't. There are strict limits on the amount of loans students can take on at the undergraduate level. These have to be parental loans--if OP isn't a troll (I think it's the latter because of the "full-ride at UVA" claim--there are only a very few full rides at UVA and it's highly specific).

Yeah- my dad took out a bunch of loans for my sister and I even though there was no way my parents would ever have been able to pay them back. We didn't realize the extent of it until we graduated. I sent my parents money every month for years, on top of my own federal loans, whereas my sister eventually just had my dad sign the loans over to her.

I was a stupid 18yo for sure but plan to provide more guidance and limits for our kids. Thankfully my now DH was not turned off by my student loan debt although I didn't have nearly that much. 200k on a 50k salary sounds pretty darn daunting.

If the OP is NOT a troll, the teacher is living at home, being frugal, so she should be able to pay $25K off per year.

But people need to stop taking these ridiculous loans (or stop complaining that they are poor and will be poor for a long time because of it). There are plenty of ways to get a great college degree without more than $20-30K debt total, and it can be done for less. It's all about responsibility and choices. Especially as a teacher, there are plenty of state schools that have education degrees that cost only $20-25k/year. A kid can take $5K in fed loans, earn $10K and they are left with 5-10K which hopefully parents can help with. Or take first 1-2 years at a CC and transfer for last 2-3 years. It can be done. Someone just needs to explain what these massive loan amounts really translate to when you are 22.

The problem is that no kid is taking on this loan burden, the adults in their life are (either directly or via co-signing). Obviously they were not well informed. The federal loan limit for all of your undergraduate years is 31,000 total. That's a very reasonable loan burden for any college graduate to pay off.

I agree. Kids heading to college deserve for their parents to tell them how its being financed. In reality, if the parents sign the loans, the kid is not responsible. If my parents did that and didn't consult with me first, the loans would have been their responsibility. Note: my parents were not dumb enough to sign loans for that amount---they refused to pay any more than they could afford, which wasn't much, and I was made well aware of that by freshman year of HS. They knew that college was expensive and told me to find a place we as a family could afford, so I did, as they needed to smartly focus on saving more for retirement.

Your parents were wise. I have sympathy for young adults with massive amounts of student debt because it would not have been possible were it not for a parent steering them in that direction, or not stepping up and saying "no." But often time the parents never received much guidance or education themselves, and on and on the cycle goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$220,000 of student loan debt for an undergraduate degree in education is astonishing. How did this happen ?

Undergraduate student loans should never be in excess of one's expected first year salary. $220,000 of student loan debt for a $50,000 a year position just won't work.

Maybe she thought teachers made more in big cities? You hear about DCPS teachers making nearly $100k. Maybe she had a different major and couldn’t hack it. I certainly had no idea about any salaries in my major other than those newspaper articles (where chemical engineers make $70k and marketing major make $60k and it all seems like a wash).

You look at these incredibly hard majors and suddenly a $50k education job, with summers off and pension doesn’t look so shabby.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/10-college-majors-with-the-highest-starting-salaries?slide=13

It’s only by knowing actual professionals, especially professional school graduates, that you understand how salaries actually spread
.

We need to appreciate teachers more
If we do not value education we shall return to the dark ages
We are only 2steps away from barbarianism

[Anonymous]

Being born poor or middle class is not a character flaw. Just because her parents could pay for college isn't on her. This thread is so classist it is disgusting.

I graduated with undergraduate and graduate debt and my husband had none. I now out earn him by a lot,,make 240K a year, and loans are long gone. Glad he wasn't like those of you posting not to get serious with her.

[Anonymous]

No. I would not get in a serious relationship with someone with that much debt. I'm feel that way because I am very uncomfortable with credit. My parents were that way. Debt worries me.

[Anonymous]

Very few teachers stay in the profession. Most end up leaving and do something else, some do well. It is not a life sentence

[Anonymous]

Her best bet is PSLF. She needs to make sure all her loans are eligible. Consolidate now with FedLoans and then never consolidate again because if she does then she loses her previous payments. Keep meticulous records of all her payments. Certify every year with her employer. If she ends up hating education whether due to unreasonable arents or politics, she should make sure she works for a qualified 501C employer to continue with PSLF. Even the $0 payments due to Covid count towards her PSLF total of 120 payments. This isn't a deal breaker, but she needs to get serious about her finances. She can tutor or wait tables outside of school hours and in the summer could even nanny.